Diving in "Cabo de Palos" :)
Hola amigos:
I went to Cabo de Palos on Wednesday with a friend I always dive with, even though her mom is very sick and she hadn't dived for some time . We got there pretty early, on Thursday it was a holiday just in Madrid and we could go diving for four days.
Cabo de Palos is a very small village, which mainly consists of : diving centres and restaurants!! lol It was incredible to see so many diving centres on the same spot. A shame we did not night dive. I just LOVE them! So relaxing
Well, anyway, I already have like 200 dives, of course, compared to Yesero who has like 2000 I am a toddler! jeje, but compared to a beginner, I am a pro
So we went to see the "Naranjito" which is called like this due to the cargo it had, naranjas of course, I don¡t know why it sunk but it is a very big ship, sunk at about 40 metres depth, only for pros
My friend was afraid, so I went with another mate, you always have to dive in pairs. In any case, this was organized by a diving school from Madrid, so we went like 12 in the boat anyway.
However, the naranjito....well, you had to imagine it more than see it, jeje, the visibility was rather bad , I guess it is the time or year, they say in October or November it is much better.
The rest of the days however were great. We ate like pigs, jeje, the typical food of the area is rice, all kind of rice, black rice with chipirones, or caldero , the rice to eat in that area! We slept in a very small pension, in that area, quite unbelievably, there is not a single hotel in the village! But that hostel was nice and quite spacey.
What we did see were groupers!! I mean I cannot remember having seen so many groupers at the same time! And 20 kilo fish! Really big! and right in front of our faces...very impressive, thing is in Cabo there is a reserva natural, so ...
Arroz negro:
13 Answers
Just glad you made it back in one pieceHeidi,
Thanks for sharing the pictures and information. You know, I think we should all make a point to post a thread about the various places we visit this summer. What may be a well know vacation spot for some, could very well be a mystery to people in other parts of the world.
When you (Heidi) went diving in Tenerife a few months ago,I had never heard of the place before. So I did a search and learned many interesting facts and saw many beautiful pictures.
I love learning about different places around the world. Imagine if we all shared this summer, how much we would learn about our world.
Picture of Tenerife: (When I grow up, I want to visit the places Heidi visits!! )
Arroz Caldero:
Meros y Morenas
El Naranjito:
Very exciting!!! I love the photos.
I'm so glad you had a good time.
Just look at this place. The next time you go, I will be hiding in your suitcase.
As you and sfrenchie pointed out, buddy diving is generally the best way to go as it is more fun with others to point things out and talk about later. I do have to admit though that here in our 5-10ft visibility water we tend to practice what would be more commonly called "independent diving". I always carry redundant air since it is so easy to lose sight of your buddy not to mention how difficult it is to shoot video with another person anxiously wanting to move along. The only time I use the buddy system to its extent is when I am diving with my wife, then my concentration is on her and if I have to stop for a photo, so does she. When she is not with me I go in with others who know my habits and don't panic if I disappear for a while. The problem with buddy diving is too many times your so called partner thinks it means "same ocean, same day" and is no where in sight as soon as you submerge. Better to be prepared so while I don't support solo diving, I do support the training now available.
Ok, this time I'm jealous. I miss diving the Mediterranean.
Heidita as you mentionned we dive by pair. My dive buddy has become same as my brother over the years. We each know one would die to save the other. We talk every day through Internet (online games jeje), watch movies together every weekend and basically don't take a trip one without the other.
However I don't know if you are aware of the new trend that is solo-diving. SDI actually offers a certification for it. I am not against it yet I would not advise for it. It might be true that in case of incident/accident followed by panic the 1st person you might kill will be your buddy or you might get them in a dangerous situation. However there are so many advantages to duo-diving, feeling a comforting presence with you (even if not needed per se), sharing sights, simple help like fixing something on your back, or even spotting a potential issue. Also sharing the experience and the chat after the dive, you know, when the 10 ft shark we saw was actually only 6 ft lol.
On the other end if I penetrate a submarine (U-boat) at 40 or 50 meters I had rather be by myself inside the "tube".
In any case, thank you for sharing your dive weekend with us.
Look, his cousin from Honduras lol.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
I have a dentist friend who was brought up in Key West Florida.
He dives frequently, and he told me that a lot of the coral reefs here are dying.
It is a shame, because they are so beautiful.
Here is a photo of a coral reef off Key West Florida:
Ah, I have lived 15 miles from the beautiful Gulf of Mexico (northwest Florida) for over 20 years and never bothered to go. Due to arthritis, I went a little last summer and was going quite regularly this summer (the last time I went the water had peaked around 82 degrees Fahrenheit...I was loving it!!!) 
I would go two or three times per week day just to walk on the soft sand and splash around a few feet from shore which was a big deal to me as I have a shark phobia. Even that fear was starting to go away. I would sometimes go out over my head!!! All I could do was dog paddle or float around, but it was a great help to my arthritis, and I had even begun to develop (very slight) muscle tone, which is tremendous for me -- the arthritis having made nearly all exercise too painful. Only swimming and walking on soft beach sand seem to be beneficial without causing too much pain later on.
The week after the muscle tone first started appearing, oil globs from the BP oil gusher started washing up on our shores!!! 
Thankfully, it's not like Louisiana, and the county commissioners are telling everyone it's still safe, but I'm probably not going back. 
I'm glad, though, that I experienced the beautiful Gulf when I did as I don't know that it will ever be beautiful again.
Looking at this thread again it bothers me that I hadn't mentioned before that 200 dives is very impressive for someone who lives over 200 miles from the sea. Heidi, I would buddy up with you any day.
Heidi,Heidi,Heidi,
You are killing me here. I want to go someplace warm (although I notice you all had wetsuits.) Our water over the past 6 weeks has warmed up from 37 degrees (that's farenheight) to a more comfortable 45 and last weekend I was able to hang up my drysuit for the season and go in 6mm wet instead. Your photos are wonderful, especially the twin golden morays and that grouper looks huge! Wreck diving is always a lot of fun, especially in visibility like that.
It appears to be a drive of about 15 hours from Madrid, am I close and how did you travel there?
I am so with you on the night diving, so very relaxing, too bad you couldn't get one in. This one, which is familiar to all on SD, is the photo from which I did the painting used as my avatar. It was taken in Turks & Caicos Islands.
I'm not quite up to 2000 dives, more like 1500 but then according to your profile a while back I would have been diving since you were born.
